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That's over $2/gb for all models except 240GB which is almost $2/gb... How the hell is that affordable? I am glad I picked up a used OCZ Vertex 2 240GB last year for $275.

After so many years of SSD existence, the price still being up there is awful, esp. in IT industry. The SD cards prices have plummeted a lot in comparison, what's going on with SSD, especially with so many companies stepping it up?Reply

I also agree that Anand is just guessing and we really have no way to say these will be much cheaper. Everyone below is providing examples how they have found better deals than Kingston's so-called value line. (Taft12, check the anger at the door).Reply

So many new players in this market, so much hype and marketing... I bet they are making a huge margin with those. That is why the prices are still high, everyone wants a share of the pie!I contibuted by buying 3 SSDs in the last 2 years (all Vertexes and all without BSODs for the statistics).Reply

I bought an Intel and a Crucial drive and both were cheaper per GB than these are. I also bought mine last year ($90 each for a 60ish GB intel drive and a 60ish GB Crucial drive). I'd also venture to say that Intel and Crucial have better quality control. So why the high prices?Reply

I have bought about a dozen Kingston, all in the space of a few months, and 14 months later I've seen 3 or 4 die. One was no longer recognized by the BIOS, another spontaneously set itself a password. One started acting just like a hdd, gradually corrupting information in a subtle manner; this is actually worse on an SSD than on a hdd, because you can't do a bad block scan.

The budget drives from Kingston had small cache, SATAI interfaces, and no TRIM support. All this I was willing to give up for the right price, but the failure rate is inexcusable. Kingston offers no firmware upgrade for these, you just have to keep good backups and hope it fails before the warranty expires.

I've also had some Intel SSDs. Intel couldn't be bothered to give us TRIM in G1. G2 was better, but still too slow on sequentials, frankly. I haven't bothered with anything since then because the rent is just too damn high. The 310s are Intel's Netburst of the SSD world.

I picked up a Corsair Force 2 because it was the cheapest SF at the time. In three different laptops it would reset on resume from suspend. It's now sitting on the work bench waiting for a home. A year after buying it, Corsair still doesn't offer a firmware update on this jewel.

OCZ on the other hand, I've used or deployed more than a dozen of these since the original Indilinx-based firmware arrived, including all generations of Vertex and Agility, and a couple Solid 3 in the mix. Not one of these has failed or hinted at failing. Never a blue screen or a stutter, they just keep cruising along. My first SSD purchase was a Vertex, and although the original firmware had no TRIM support, a later update brought it in (even before Linux support). This Vertex served in two desktops and now finds its home in my rough-service netbook. The OCZ forums are an excellent trove of tips and tricks for Windows and Linux users. This is an example of a company doing it right. I don't even look at other brands any more.

Kingston can go sell their overpriced garbage to some other sucker. They're a great source for RAM, but their SSD division just doesn't cut it. If their higher end products are just going to be rebrands of other makers (Intel, SF), then they should at least offer some competitive pricing or some other value-add.Reply